It seems to be overheating on the highway only, not in town. Its especially bad going up hills, etc. I can keep it out of the red if I'm easy on it and not hauling a load at all. But just cruising at 70-75 in 4th gear (about 3000 rpm) gets it up there pretty fast, and it doesnt really come down when I upshift into 5th. it only comes down when I get off the freeway and into "in-town" driving.

I replaced the thermostat (which is on the bottom of the engine, briliant!) and the readiator cap...no dice. I'm taking it in to the dealer today, but I thought I'd ask here to see if you guys had any insight.

its a 2004 1500 4.7 5 speed.

 

yeah the t stat was put in a logical spot. Did you go oem or 2 stage 180?

Dollars to donuts its your fan. Oem replacement is 50-60 bucks and anyone can replace it, channel locks, wrench and ***** and you'll knock it off. You may look into investing in an e fan. Better cfm at idle and in city, same cfm at hwy spd. Plus itll free up a small amt of hp

 

The dealer is telling me I have bad head gaskets, and that causing it to overheat. he says the water is getting into the cylinders and burning off. I have not noticed any white smoke at all, and have not noticed a drop in the coolant level (in the overflow tank) in two months. Granted, I have not checked the radiator, but if the reserve is full, shouldnt the radiator be full too? He said it lost coolant on his 25 mile test drive.

Also they tell me the water pump bearings are going out and it needs to be replaced. I would hope that the dealer would have enough sense to know if this is the cause instead of the head gaskets, so I guess I have to trust them.

Anyway, now they are going to tear off the heads to verify thats whats wrong. The warrenty people are not going to garantee payment until they send out an inspector once the heads are off. It SHOULD be covered by my warranty, but I'm a little nervous.

Anyway, I guess I dont really understand how I could lose enough water into the engine to cause a drop in coolant enough to make it overheat, ONLY on the highway. I haven't added coolant in about 2 and a half months when I replaced the thermostat (standard OEM) and the temp is fine in town and during the 15 minute drive to Corvallis at 55 mph...

 

i have the 2004 as well and it had the same exact problem!! basically around the 70 mph +the mother f**kin truck starts over heating reallllybaadd and then when it idles i was afraid my *** was going to go up in smoke!! this wasbare truck no haulin, and thenwith a trailer full of appliances ( my business), it was realy bad .i replaced the thermo( the oem 195) and that didnt do sh*t ! so now i have the e fan and 180 thermo and it seems to be doing better. this happened the first summer i had the dodge, and actually had to question ifthe dodge was a good truck to get! I dont what it is but , my wifes bmw stays the exacty same no matter what! even with air conditioner, high rpms, hot day, 100 miles 80 + - her gauge never moves!

 

water pump is very easy to replace yourself. After you knock off the fan its just a few bolts. Make them show you the water pump once they take it off. See if it spins easily or very tight, if its really tight then there's nothing wrong with it.
You shouldn't have to worry about the warranty claim being filed as its the dealers job to know what's wrong they can't just dig around and charge you for all the labor wasted to figure out what the problem was.

 

Mine was covered cost the dealer $8000 after it was all said & done..

 

I have a 2004 Ram 4.7L 5 Spd Auto (4 Speed with the kickdown gear) and have never had any overheating problems, at any speed (have been up to about 90 mph for ~30 seconds), or with any load (have hauled up to almost 2 tons) on the highway at ~70 mph. I do drive it very precise like such that it rarely shifts down; I gain speed before hills, and regress off the gas pedal so the torque conv. stays locked up and no gear shift. I am the 2nd owner. As far as I know, it has the original fan, water pump, head gaskets, etc.
Kalashnikov, why don't you get it into 5th gear on the highway? That is what 5th gear is for lol. I can understand if you are hauling, but cruising at 3000 RPM just doesn't sound good. I think I have 3.21 final drive, it turns at about 2000 RPM at 70 mph in top gear.

 

The reason for running in 4th was to reproduce this problem I was having a couple months back. I rarely take it out on the freeway, and at $4 a gallon I did'n really want to take a 25 mile drive for the hell of it! once I verified that it was still happening and it got hot, I shifted to fifth. the temp did not come back down.

The truck is in the shop right now with the heads torn off

 

hey man i have the same truck as you and the same thing happened to me just a week ago. my water pump was bad. pull on your radiator fan and see if its loose. if it is then your water pump is out. and get it replaced very soon.

 

Well, the truck is in the shop right now with the heads off it. Also, they did say that the water pump has "loose bearings" so they are going to replace that. I sure as hell hope that they are not stupid enough to pull the heads when it is simply the water pump...the dealer is Mark Thomas Motors in Albany, OR.